politics

State’s Jews could be pivotal; debate over Israel gets heated airing at DNC.

07/27/2016 - 08:27

Stewart Ain

Staff Writer

Philadelphia — As Democrats prepared for the roll call vote that would make Hillary Clinton the first woman presidential nominee of a major American political party, Florida delegate Ellen Brodsky said she would never vote for her.

Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, as respected as any rabbi in America, was invited by Ivanka Trump, whose conversion he supervised, to give the invocation this week at the Republican National Convention. He accepted. He had given invocations for President Obama, and in 2008, when principal of Ramaz, castigated Ramaz students when he heard one say that Obama would be dangerous for Israel.

With Hillary Clinton aiding him as the self-proclaimed “designated yeller” at Israel’s leaders, President Obama has spent the last seven and a half years placing enormous pressure on Israel to make unilateral concessions to a Palestinian leadership that foments terrorism and glorifies the murder of Jews. This administration coddles America’s adversaries while antagonizing our allies. ISIS is terrorizing the world and establishing bases on Israel’s doorstep, throughout Europe and elsewhere around the world. It is no wonder that pro-Israel Americans — Jews and non-Jews — are yearning for a strong, principled leader. Yet Jewish Week editor Gary Rosenblatt seems perplexed as to why many American supporters of Israel prefer Donald Trump (“Israel-Firsters Seen Edging Toward Trump,” July 1).

William Weld, the Libertarian Party candidate for vice president, is a former two-term Republican governor of Massachusetts who earlier served for seven years as a federal prosecutor. He is running on a ticket headed by Gary Johnson, the former two-term Republican governor of New Mexico. The Jewish Week caught up with him by phone last week a few days after the Orlando terror attack.

When Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders intoned — in his hometown of Brooklyn, of all places — that Israel used what he termed “disproportionate” force in trying to quell Hamas fighters in Gaza in the summer of 2014, he touched a political third rail for many Jews.

While presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders continue their race to the Democratic convention, the former secretary of state remains the presumed candidate despite the Vermont senator’s string of primary victories. Another disconnect within the party — one with direct impact on the Jewish community — is that it is losing pro-Israel voters to the Republicans by a disturbingly wide margin.

From coast to coast, movements for social justice on American campuses are increasingly taking an alarming turn. Some activists, preeminently Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), have begun enforcing a crude ideological purity in ways profoundly at odds with the principles of open debate and inclusive discussion that define the academy. SJP and allied groups not only seek to isolate Israel economically, academically, and culturally through Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), and they not only disrupt events related to Israel or featuring Israelis, SJP now also aims to prohibit Hillel, the central support for Jewish life on campus, along with its affiliates, from engaging in social justice work.

Cautious support but concern about whether presumptive nominee ‘represents their values.’

05/11/2016 - 09:01

Stewart Ain

Staff Writer

As the presidential campaign of Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, takes shape after his two remaining competitors have dropped out, outreach has begun to potential donors. They want to hear more, especially about Israel.